(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for gas excitation with a view to the formation of excited or unstable gas molecules, which is in particular designed for the excitation of gases used in the field of surface treatment, or alternatively effluent gas treatment
(ii) Description of Related Art
Gas excitation devices are known in the prior art, of the type comprising a gas excitation chamber provided with a gas inlet passage in communication with a primary gas supply source, and an outlet passage for excited gas.
This type of excitation device makes it possible to transfer chemical and heat energy to a gas from electrical energy, while operating at a temperature close to ambient temperature.
During operation, this device needs a high gas consumption in order to ensure rapid transport of chemically activated species to a region where they are used (minimizing the time of "flight" between the inlet of gas into the device and the arrival of the excited species on the surface to be treated, when considering the example of a surface treatment).
Such gas consumption considerably impairs the economic benefit of a device of this type. For example, there are clear difficulties in adapting processes of this type to the treatment of mass-produced articles, as is the case in the automotive industry, or in the glass industry, where the extra cost of the gas consumption is not always tolerable.
The object of the invention is to overcome this drawback and to provide a gas excitation device which exhibits low gas consumption and furthermore allows intake of an addition gas mixture upstream of the gas excitation chamber.